This is a bit like a "super-topic" targeting an issue, which covers both, the "Linear Stories vs Interactive Storytelling"-Thread (
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6203.0) as well as the "A ludologically constructed conversation game"-Thread (
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=6242.0).
Designing a dynamic gameworld is a bit like creating a simulated world (with the scope depending on the game). So, you create all kinds of entities in an environment, define how things are connected, give those entities "intentions", and things start moving...
...and then? Okay, you maybe created an interesting explorable environment, but the game has no "point" besides of that. There is no macroscopic "progress" and "targeted movement" in the gameworld. Now, hardcore prodecural game proponents will probably argue that "an invisible god" (the author pulling threads) doesn't belong into such a game.
Why not? What certainly does not belong there, is an author enforcing directions the hard way with a totalitarian hands-on mentality, true. What also doesn't belong there is an author playing spellcaster, by making things appear out of thin air in a way, which breaks the carefully balanced environment and its mechanics, true. "Creation" and "Direct intervention" IMO is off the table for such a game.
But are those the only ways to introduce "guidance" in a gameworld? I dont think so. There are a few ways, how one can still let the author steer the plot in a harmonic way - and even in a linear (!!!) style.
A few examples:
- Biases. These environments work via mechanics - if the balance is shifted in one way, it will slowly tend into a certain direction.
- Plot Waypoints / Chapters. You can define certain states in the gameworld which trigger a transition. A transition to what? Well thats up to you! You can make the actors move to a different scene. You can make a significant modification to a part of the gameworld (attention: do not inject resources (no "casting out of thin air"), but rather transform already existing "substance"). There are many possibilities.
- You can combine the above two techniques. Imagine a flat sheet balanced on top of a ball. On the sheet are the actors in the gameworld. Now, you can make it so that movements on that sheet, tilt the balance in an escalating way - and for each direction in which the balance may escalate, you have a "plot waypoint" defined, which introduces an important transition of the gameworld. This basically would be close to the "branching" approach in traditional static worlds.
Those were just some examples and there are probably many more. You just need to think outside of the box of techniques, which you learned from static gameworlds.
EDIT:
When thinking about what kind of external (author) influence is acceptable, two major aspects seem to be significant:
1. If possible at all, resist the temptation to cast via magic. Do not enforce the changes which you wish "on top of the gameworld mechanics". Rather, use the gameworld mechanics to make the entities by themselves behave as you wish. In other words: Your modifications should be compatible with the gameworld mechanics, instead of being conflicting with them. Do not cast new things, shape existing things.
2. The player should not feel betrayed in his ability to decide and those decisions to have weight (consequences). I could now go into all kinds of detail, but the solution really is simple: Do not enforce you wishes on the player. Accept the decisions of the player and cooperate with him. Do not act like an author - act like a pen and paper roleplaying gamemaster! It really all comes down to that the player should not feel that you ignore his interests and strip him of his own significance.
Take into account that there are many one-way streets with which the player would be perfectly fine. For example, no player will complain that in a scene it starts to rain - and yet, the consequence is that this way you make sure that the player seeks shelter in nearby buildings - you just forced a plot transition without making it feel enforced - especially not if the player even gets options where to seek shelter
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